Happy Hour Chatter

I picked up a new gig.  I'm now volunteering at The Heritage Center in addition to teaching yoga there every other week. I had thought about it for quite some time and decided that it was now or never.   What made me decided to volunteer more time?   When I go there to teach yoga, the residents don't want to leave after our session.  They like to talk to me and ask me questions about what I do (my work at the prison), my family, what is going on downtown, how I've been feeling.  They're lonely and they like interaction with people from the outside (not staff members). I've come to know several of them and some of them I already knew.  There is Harry, who used to be my bus driver when I was little.  Harold, who is my brother-in-law's brother.  There is Bobbie, who was friends with my mom and dad and whose farm was just 2.5 miles from my family farm.  Saturday was my first day helping some of the residents.  I loaded up m...

I love my Sundays.  It's generally the one day of the week that I try not to schedule anything.  I like to roll with it and see where the day takes me.  Sometimes I sit in my recliner and watch the morning news shows.  Sometimes I clean house if I didn't get a chance to do it on Saturday.  Sometimes I find my guy, Blaine, and spend time with him. Today I compromised....I cleaned house...after I watched the morning new shows.  Then I headed in to town to have lunch with my friend Becky at the new Mexican restaurant in town.  She works at a bank now and we see each other even less than when we were working at the same facility. The food was awesome and the company great.  It was good to connect with her and to share some face time.  I went up to Wal-Mart after that with the intent of doing a little shopping but my heart just wasn't in it.  I took a little drive around town and listened to some tunes on the radio.  I love to dr...

This was my first week back to work after being on vacation.  I was busy the week before vacation getting ready for vacation so that I wouldn't have so much to do when I got back.   No such luck.  I hit the ground running on Monday morning and literally did not stop until 4:30pm today.   I hate it when that happens. It also didn't help that a very close friend of mine is experiencing personal issues.  I feel helpless in that I cannot help them.  I feel their stress, uncertainty and frustration. I worry about them - their emotional and physical well being as well.   I cannot fathom what must be going through their head right now, but want them to know that I care and will always be here for them not matter what.   One positive note:  I attempted and completed the Turkey Challenge at Anytime Fitness on Thursday night.  This consisted of five rounds of each of these: Dead Lifts (12 reps)  at 8...

1) On the way in to town this morning, I was greeted by the sight of three deer standing quietly in a field about a 1/4 mile away from highway 281N.  They apparently were not worried that it was weekend #2 of deer hunting season and a carload of hunters had just passed us. 2) One of my yoga students, Mike, bringing me OJ to make up for the OJ I didn't have on hand at my yoga retreat. :) 3) My mother-in-law's smile and laughter when she's having a good day 4) A pedicure 5) A beautiful morning - quiet, serene, brisk and exhilarating 6) Having a random encounter with someone and sharing a good laugh with them. (Now I wish I'd gotten their name) 7) Sitting in a restaurant booth and having a cute little boy toddler flirt with me. 8) Hearing a good song, not knowing the artist who sings it, then realizing that my great new app called Soundhound can find that information.  FYI: "Say Hey (I Love You) by Michael Franti &  Spearhead 9) Hearing from a frie...

I am officially on vacation.  Yay.  Not a very enthusiastic "yay" was it? For most people, being on vacation means going some where fun and exciting or having fun things to do.   Me?  I use my vacation days to tackle projects that I normally do not get a chance to do due to my hectic work, yoga and gym schedules. I have 3 projects I want to accomplish on my days off.  I feel like I should have relatively good success in tackling these projects if I 1) Stay on my sleep/wake schedule and do not stay up until all hours of the night and sleep in just because "I can." 2) Limit my Today Show viewing and coffee drinking to 1 hr..maximum.  3) Shower and dress for the day as if I were going to work...which, in essence, I am...just not to the office as normal 4) Put on some kick ass music 5) Focus on THE project of the day and ONLY that project.  We (my sisters and I), tend to take detours in our cleaning.  You know...the find an object ...